American Horror Story Season 2 Spoiler Alert: Find Out Who Will and Won't Be Back!

With American Horror Story‘s first season resting in peace, Ryan Murphy is turning his attention to the serial thriller’s second act.

The show’s cocreator confirms that Season 2 will be “radically different” from Season 1. That means a new setting/locale and a (mostly) new cast.

“The second season of the show will [feature] a brand new home or building to haunt,” Murphy said in a conference call with reporters on Thursday. “It will also have a new overriding theme.”

And in an unprecedented twist for an ongoing series, some current castmembers will return — but they’ll be playing new characters. (Murphy confirmed that current leads Connie Britton and Dylan McDermott will not be back, at least not as series regulars.) “There will be familiar faces and some new faces,” said Murphy. “People that are coming back will be playing completely new characters… Getting to tell a different aspect of what an American horror story can be [every season] is fascinating.”

Murphy added that he’s currently in talks with a few members of the Season 1 cast to return full time, but he declined to name names. An official announcement about the new ensemble and storyline will be made in February. In the meantime, Murphy offered this tantalizing tease: “There’s a clue in the last three episodes where we say what the second season will be.”

I think they should absolutely keep Evan Peters and Jessica Lange. She’s awesome, but that boy was totally amazing.
In my opinion they had to play the most complex characters in the show and they did great.

What questions could you possibly have left about Constance’s husband?? She killed him, fed his body to the dogs, & now his ghost is spending the afterlife having sex with other ghosts in the house, like Hayden. End of story.

And the ghosts remaining there has been explained before. Starting with the original owners, the Montgomerys, there has been an accumulation of evil in the house so that now anyone who dies there has been trapped.

No show should have to spell out every single plot point. Good storylines should leave you questions to wonder about & discuss.

ITA…everything was there within the eps & at the same time keeping some things as a mystery which made this show brilliant … i enjoyed every minute of it & i’m glad they kept somethings a mystery =] … so i for one am looking forward to season 2 to see where they take us with this new characters/story =]

i really want season 2 to include the same characters as season 1. well not every character, but main characters like tate and violet, because i really want to know what will happen between them, also see if tate will commit another murder, or if he ends up raising the ‘anti-christ’ child. also constance, because as most of you mentioned, she holds this show together. but vivien also has to return, with her trying to get her child back from ms.montgomery, even though she’s not really ready to raise a child after what happened to her baby. the gay couple also need to return!! if it’s an entirely different cast with entirely different stories, i will be extremely upset, for example. if it would go from season 1, stories about tate and violet’s love, the things tate did like shoot up the school, the miscarriage vivien and then season 2 just leaving us hanging wondering about what happened with violet and tate by introducing a new cast with various stories!? no, no way in hell. i’m too attached to these characters and if you change the cast or have the same actors play different people with a DIFFERENT story, you will have lost a viewer.

Even if Evan and Taissa come back, they won’t be playing Tate and Violet, so you won’t get what happens between them. I think their story ended last night :/ They’ll be playing new characters, they could even up playing siblings in S2. We don’t know yet.

i’m having trouble trying to process that tate and violet are over, because tate’s last words were along the lines of “i’ll wait for her, even if it’s forever”. so they can’t just blow off everything between violet and tate.

i’m sorry but yes they can Tate can say and wish whatever he wants but because of his actions he will NEVER have the one thing he wants …. that’s his punishment, purgatory whatever you want to call it and that’s exactly what the character deserves cause he was NEVER GOOD to begin with nor was he in the end either … so yes their story is over & Violet is/will be happy away from him cause that’s what she deserves

she does deserve that but tate stopped violet from cutting, and he was her first love. and i understand that what he did was wrong, if i was violet i’d stay away from him. but like murphy said, the events in the last 3 episodes will possibly show up in season 2, so i haven’t lost all hope. plus, you never know what these fictional t.v. characters can do, she might look past everything that tate has done and go back to him, or tate could even threaten to do something bad if she doesn’t come back to him, tate can be pretty evil! i just refuse to believe that they’re over, tate won’t give up just like that.

Murphy pretty much said in his interview that he would never have Violet go back to Tate. That he deserves his punishment, which is to be forever alone. Which I give him credit for. That character was evil, he was a charming, manipulative psychopath and I think it would have sent a horrible message if Murphy had bowed to the “twilight” pressure and decided to put them together. I was really happy with the ending. And if the next season takes place in Roanoake, maybe he can write that actor a decent character who gets a happy ending.

I hope they Keep Tate, Moria, Constance and Violet. That kept me comming back. I HAD to know what they did, and how they were gonna fix it. Dammit I want The Light and Darkness. I don’t know how I feel about a new house to haunt. It’s weird.

I haven’t seen the finale but from reading it I think that the season ended really well. For season 2 I think it will be really cool to see a new location with constance and the baby in a different location. I believe we will be in for a real treat, I just hope they keep me entertained and I dont drift away now that more people are going to want to watch the second season.

This is similar to the Walking Dead, because the first season was REALLY good and many people overlooked it, until the ending. Now everyone wants to go all GAGA over the second season, when they didn’t even watch the first season. Due to that I feel that the second season didnt give off the same feeling.

I think this is a great idea. Yes, I have a few unanswered questions about the actual house and why the ghosts are all trapped there, but I’m okay with not knowing the answers. I have a feeling they will definitely ask Evan Peters to come back for S2. There’s no way they haven’t seen the fan response to him online. The majority of comments I saw were always about Evan and Tate. They probably know it would be a smart move to keep him on. Also, they might be TRYING to get Jessica Lange to sign on for S2, but I think it all depends on if she wants to sign on again because I know she only agreed to the first season because she thought it was only going to be a one season gig. We’ll see.

How could they just leave everything hanging? Tate and Violet can’t just end like that. And I doubt Hayden would just sit in the back row and watch Ben be happy with Vivian and a baby. She has to have something plotted out. And to just leave a demon baby sitting there and abandon the story line? Uhm, what? This is not okay. You can’t just build up an entire season and make us fall in love with the cast, and then move it to a whole new house. And if there’s another house like the Murder House, that means they could be incredibly common, and I’m no longer drawn in. And one more thing. Old cast members playing new parts? Stupidest decision ever. That’s almost as bad as getting new people to play old parts. I have a feeling that season 2 is going to drive this series into the ground.

OK, you could do what pathetic romantic story you want in your OWN tv show you moron. Of course an imbecile like you can already make predictions like ‘season 2 is going to drive this series into the ground’. You’re just too stupid to understand a good story.

i agree…i am invested in this story…it is not over…so many things despite what some might say are left undone and not explored…changing the formula this drastically this soon in the game will lead this show down the tubes…

My thoughts are that the new Haunting will be Vivians sister. She was mentioned a lot in the last three episodes, what with them trying to leave and get the baby to Florida.

I’ll say its there. And maybe… Jessica Lange will play Vivians sister. Because Constance was the ultimate bad mother. And in the finale Ben says that Vivians sister is a GOOD mom. Vivian doesn’t seem convinced…. Lets see if that happens x)

will miss Connie Britton working with this team and being on my TV each week. I missed Friday Night Lights but am now starting that series because of her amazing work on AHS.

What an inventive idea to create a “REP” company of actors to play with and write for differently each season. Sure we were invested in certain characters and back stories BUT this is so much like what UK TV does that I am excited to see these mini movie like seasons that give actors a chance to play all kinds of characters. It will also keep the stories from getting stale. GENIUS!!!!

Boston has been mentioned so many times I feel like that could be one of the places they go next season. I have a feeling they might keep Tate and Violet are around, or maybe just Tate and then bring back Violet later? Especially with everything he was saying towards the end of the finale about waiting forever for her. I can’t wait for season 2!

The main fan base interest centers around the characters so wonderfully portrayed by taissa farmiga and evan peters. The pair have insane chemistry and are both very talented for their young age. Ryan and co. would be foolish not to invite them both back in season two. Its just a shame it seems Tate and Violet’s story won’t reach a contented conclusion as their romance seemed a lot rawer than some other supernatural shows/films.

contented conclusion? they’re dead, he raped her mom, killed multiple students and manipulated everyone he came in contact with. though i suppose any girl stupid enough to fall for someone as violent and psychotic as that deserves him. sorry, but the violet character just makes women look stupid. which worries me since the whole ‘Twilight’ series seems to confirm this….

I agree. When Violet let her mom be institutionalized to protect her boyfriend, I pretty much thought “Well, gee, there goes all her coolness.” She got it back when she told him to get the f out of her life. She stood up for herself, and didn’t succomb to the “Oh baby, I know I done wrong but its only because I love you so much.” It would have set a terrible example to young women. I was really happy he didn’t cave in on that and said, No, evil is evil, even if he is charming. And violet sees that and says hell no! That scene with Ben at the end pretty much spelled out that Tate is incapable of really loving anyone.

I foresaw the end of the Harmons and murder house, but I really felt the final scene of the S1 setup a brilliant, altogether different horror tale. The story of Constance raising her demonic grandson. That would allow for a new season story with certain obvious modern American themes (look no further than We Need To Talk About Kevin opening this month). Children, especially radically misbehaved ones, are a common horror theme with lots of story potential. Also, that would allow for Lange to carry on as fan favorite Constance.

I loved this season of AHS and although I wish they could have expanded this season and answered some questions I look forward to the next season! I really hope they bring back Evan peters who played Tate! He was phenomenal and I really see so much potential in him! He has such an affect on his audience and I think it would be a smart move to being him back because so many people agree.

Insanely bad move on Murphy and Falchuks behalf. Season 1 and its cast the first 5/6 episodes were so well put together, good character developments and plot and possibility. After Rubberman it shoved everything in the air and it tore down what could’ve been a redemption storyline. Instead it turned into a bizarre baby lottery. The characters of constance, violet and tate, for example- could have had an entirely different conclusion. The finale was a total trainwreck. Simply no loose ends tied up, no shred of real conviction and no meaning for any of what has went on the entire season, the harmons all dying was ridiculous and seeing it jump 3 years to simply show demon baby pull a tate was unnecessary..The cast worked so well and the audience was only just forming attachments. A new house/new cast for season two will flop massively. The whole allure was murder house.

*EXCELLENT show! An amazing cast of characters, everyone did a FANTASTIC job. Well-written , well-executed, well-scored, well-costumed,well-shot, well-designed, artistically-done…as for the cast that returns, I hope for Evan Peters, Taissa Farmiga, Jessica Lange…but ALL of them were good. As for people slamming it for not having meatier roles for Connie Britton or Dylan McDermott, did you pay attention the show? It was a horror-drama, and provided ample opportunity for them to show off their chops. As it did for every main character there. They all took advantage of it and played their characters well. If you don’t like horror, and you are just watching it for Connie, then either accept it for what it is or get off the bus. It’s like someone that knows nothing about sports trying to comment on a game.

I’m pretty conflicted about this. On one hand I LOVED this cast! They were also so talented and fascinating in their own ways. There wasn’t a single character I hated (I even liked Hayden–okay, I REALLY liked her). That said, I really didn’t know how the show was going to continue. Yeah, I guess they could have had a new family move it but I feel by Season 3 that would have been dull. This way, they can keep the series fresh without going through the same thing over and over again. I really do hope they keep Jessica Lange though. It’s odd they left her storyline with the anti-christ rather ambiguous.

Wow. Well a new story might be interesting, but I don’t understand how they can just rap the Harmons like that. As much as I LOVED s1 (up until the seemingly rushed season finale) I’m unsure if I can settle with the thought of an entirely different cast and house? So many loose ends! So many unanswered question! It just drives me crazy the Harmons are done within 12 episodes…

This is a bad bad choice…This is what bombed Heroes…Don’t do it…plus the House is the focal point how can you change that…if anything you better keep Jessica Lange and Francis Conroy, they are American Horror Story.

What a horribly awful idea. I don’t watch serialized tv to have the entire story and cast change one season in. Ryan Murphy is such a moron. There are ways to continue with this cast that this man obviously can’t see. If Jessica Lange isn’t back, I’m not even going to try watching this. I feel like I was just severly duped. They should fire him asap and get someone on board who can actually see past one season if TV.

Sorry to break it to you… but the only reason Jessica Lange agreed to the role of Constance in the first place was because it was only 12 episodes. You can’t blame Ryan Murphy if she doesn’t want to come back!

I really don’t know why so many people seem so upset by the idea of a new cast/setting. I liked that there were things that weren’t answered from S1 & that not everything had a (totally) happy ending. Yes, I liked the cast but I’m sure I will like the new cast too. These are professional people & I’m sure they will do just as good of a job with the new cast as with the current one. Seriously people, while it may be a great show, it is still just a show. I’m just hoping they don’t do anymore with the demon baby crap. That was a little unoriginal.

These are some of the most moronic comments I have ever heard. The story was wrapped up in a nice little bow for everyone that is educated beyond a middle school level. Tate was doomed to live out eternity without Violet, everyone was dead and Constance finally got her Antichrist child. Where would they POSSIBLY go after that without making it cheesy and obnoxious? I love the idea of an anthology series. But screw doing something new, right?

this is the worst thing they could possibly do!i want to see tate and violet get back together and what happens next for that baby?they cant just drop everything and start in a new house with new characters played by the same people that would be so confusin we need to see how tate turned evil?what will hayden do next? because they have left at least 5 cliffhangers ….

I am SOOO happy that they are going to a new house and new cast. I thought that was how this show was going to work but then mid season I thought I had read from RM that it would be the same house same cast and I was disappointed. I like the idea of fresh start. Getting a new house/new cast is also very much like the movies of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s that Ryan likes to reference.

There were no “cliffhangers”. That story was finished. Tate will never be with Violet. It was his ultimate punishment for being a serial murdering psychopath. And how is the Antichrist being born a cliffhanger? I’m pretty sure we all know how that ends.

The Omen pretty much picks up from the season finale. I’d be bored watching a season of that. It’s American Horror Story, not American Haunted House. There are all kinds of legends and myths for the writers to pick from.

I think that it answered the questions that a person can’t elude to on their own so I don’t feel cheated that they are changing up the whole story line. But.. if Jessica Lange doesn’t reappear as ghost or human it will ruin it for me.

I don’t think I can even watch this show anymore if Tate isn’t part of it. Not just Evan Peters. I love Tates character. & now he’s just gonna be gone? He was the reason I watched the show. I would have never continued watching if it weren’t for him.

Oh my god. Seriously. I don’t know about you guys, but just because the Glee guy likes switching around characters doesn’t mean he needs to do it in every show he helps create. I for one am going to stop watching the show. Something else that pisses me off is the fact that he is going to have old characters playing new ones. To me that screams extremely low budget. I want to know what is wrong with the house, why it was trapping souls, not delve into another one without understanding what was wrong with the first one in the first place.

what was there to answer? unless you missed some episodes there are none. the last episode showed it couldnt be the same over and over again. judging by how many times it was mentioned florida must be were season 2 is set.

Oh, Florida. Joy.
I really applaud these creators for their sense of continuity. Bravo.
It would make a lot more sense if the next story was somehow connected to the murder house. But no. They have to move it to the other side of the country. American Horror Story is now American No-more Story.

I for one am excited to see how Ryan Murphy and Co. will make this concept work for season 2. I think it is innovative and interesting and there is a lot of potential. I totally get that a lot of people are upset about having to let go of characters that they have become attached to, as well as their story, but I think that once season 2 starts, many viewers will attach to the new characters and story line just as quickly as when this show first started. It is a bit frustrating that some of our questions seem to have gone unanswered, and as this story is not being revisited, they will remain unanswered, but what horror story is ever without its mystery? I plan to look at each season as a mini-series, and enjoy them each for what they are. Really looking forward to season 2, and I hope I will not be disappointed.

For those of you who watched this show half-heartedly and have already sworn off season 2, maybe the show is just too deep for you. If you still don’t understand why the house traps souls there, you clearly weren’t paying attention throughout the season. A show isn’t interesting if every little thing is spelled out for the audience. If you want that, go watch a CBS procedural and stop watching/commenting on shows that are meant to make you THINK.